Written by

@BobJordanAPP

NEPTUNE — Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr. says he has spent his career in Congress working and succeeding on issues, such as the environment and health care, that affect regular citizens.

Those efforts, he argues, are indicative of the work ethic he would bring to the U.S. Senate.

“I’m the person who can get things done,” said Pallone, D-N.J., staking his ground in a meeting Thursday with the editorial board of the Asbury Park Press and other Gannett New Jersey newspapers. That ability makes him more qualified for the Senate than his opponents, all of whom have staked out their own ground in the race, he said.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker says his celebrity will aid him in the Senate. Rep. Rush Holt says he’s the “real progressive” in the field of Democrats running in the special Aug. 13 Senate primary, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver claims a niche as a “pragmatic politician.”

Booker has a commanding lead in the polls over his three rivals but Pallone insists he’s the candidate best equipped to deliver on campaign promises. The 13-term member of the House said he started honing those skills back in his first term.

“When I was first elected to Congress, we had all the beach closings of 1988, because we had these ocean-dumping sites and medical waste washing ashore. I vowed when I came before the Asbury Park Press editorial board that if I was elected I was going to close the sites and clean up the ocean, and I basically did that,” Pallone said. “We closed some of them through legislative efforts where we reached across the aisle and got Republicans and Democrats involved. In other cases, we pushed the federal agencies (to close dump sites in the Atlantic).”

Pallone said he’s maintained the same approach in the 25 years since.

“Whenever there’s a problem I think needs a solution, I try to come up with a legislative or agency fix that will make a difference and improve people’s lives,” he said.

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Pallone represents the state’s 6th Congressional District, which includes Monmouth County’s Bayshore and coastal towns plus most of Middlesex County.

Pallone, 61, began his political career by winning election to the Long Branch City Council in 1982 and went on to serve five years in the state Senate.

In the House, Pallone is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and is the top Democrat on the panel’s health subcommittee, which has jurisdiction on Medicaid legislation and resolutions and shares jurisdiction on Medicare matters.

Booker told the editorial board earlier this week that he can leverage his fame to draw attention to the progressive agenda and can trade political chits for support of state interests.

Pallone said that’s not reality.

“He talked about how he has the celebrity status, and he’s on all the TV shows, so when he goes down to Washington, that’s going to give him a leg up. Well I don’t believe that for one minute,” Pallone said. “I know how the Senate operates. That’s not the way it works. The person who actually accomplishes something is the person who rolls up their sleeves.”

Last week’s Monmouth University poll found Booker with 49 percent support of likely voters in the Democratic primary. Pallone was runner-up at 12 percent.

Booker also led Pallone 47-15 among those with a consistent voting history and greater awareness of the upcoming primary but Pallone said there is no way to predict which voters will come out on primary day.

“It’s a very different election. It’s in the middle of August. Unfortunately most people still don’t seem to be aware of it. Polls taking place now, or even a day or two before the election, may not be telling because you don’t know who’s going to vote,” Pallone said.

The Republican primary pits former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan against Alieta Eck, a Somerset County physician. The winners advance to the Oct. 16 election that will fill the final 14 months of the term held by the late Frank Lautenberg.